put off

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"put-off" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“put off” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To postpone, especially through procrastination.

Corpus desk

Index EN-put-off · put off · English

put off · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for put off
PropertyValue
Headwordput off
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “put off” in English

put offranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

put off is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.

put off has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is put off, spelled P-U-T- -O-F-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    To postpone, especially through procrastination.
  2. 2
    To delay (a task, event, etc.).
  3. 3
    To distract; to disturb the concentration of.
  4. 4
    To cause to dislike; to discourage (from doing).
  5. 5
    To emit; to give off (an odor, smoke, etc.).
  6. 6
    To take off (something worn).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how put off appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Don't put off your homework to the last minute.
  2. Don't put your homework off to the last minute.

This word in other languages

perecear(Español)ajourner(Français)hinausschieben(Deutsch)adiar(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "put off"?
"put off" is spelled P-U-T- -O-F-F.
What does "put off" mean?
As a verb, "put off" means: To postpone, especially through procrastination.
What language does "put off" come from?
"put off" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list